We really enjoyed visiting the city of Vienna. I put together a little list of 5 things to do in Vienna that will hopefully help you enjoy it as much as we did!
Vienna is an extremely beautiful city. I’d imagine an architects’ dream. Make sure to spend some time wandering through the streets and taking in the fabulous scenery.
The city is small enough to get around on foot but large enough that there’s plenty to do. Read on to find out a few of our highlights.
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Best Things to do in Vienna:
1. The Spanish Riding School:
One of Vienna’s main attractions is the Spanish Riding School, set in the stunningly beautiful Hofburg Palace it has continued to practice classic equitation for the past 450 years.
We visited in the morning (from 10-12) to see the horses “Morning Exercises’”. A display of riders and horses training together to music. We’re not especially interested in horses but still really enjoyed this.
Cost: €15 for Adults (student discount is available making it €10.50)
Guided tours of the Palace are also available as well as shows, more details can be found if you click HERE.
2. Eat Sweet Treats!
Let Them Eat Cake! Tea and Apple Strudle for Breakfast Sachertorte
Vienna is famous for its sweet treats. Sampling a few is defiantly one of the things to do in Vienna!
The most famous being Sachetorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam and then covered in dark chocolate icing.
Secondly, apple strudel is a must-try. An apple-filled pastry, served warm, sometimes for breakfast!
Of course we tried both of these and they were delicious!
Fun Fact – Did you know the croissant originated from Vienna? All this time I thought it was French!
3. Visit the Opera or Ballet:
We managed to get €4 tickets to see the ballet Giselle at the Wiener Staatsoper opera house. The opera house is another beautiful building and well worth seeing.
It is possible to get tickets to see a ballet or opera for a bargain price, as low as €3! There is a slight catch, you have to stand to watch rather than be seated and it involves a little bit of queuing.
With the €3 tickets you stand at the back of the stalls, we thought it was worth the extra €1 to stand at the back of the dress circle. The picture above shows we had a pretty good view!
Here’s how to get the tickets. Find out showtimes HERE. Standing tickets go on sale 1hour and 20minutes before the show starts. You need to line up at the standing ticket office. We got there about an hour and 15 minutes before the show and there was already quite a queue.
The line moves fairly quickly. You’re only allowed to buy one ticket per person so everyone in your group needs to queue together and they only accept cash.
Once you have your ticket you can go through to the standing area. It seemed to be the rule that the people who got there first were allowed to tie a scarf or similar to the railings to reserve their space. This caused a bit of confusion and a little bit of pushing and shoving. My advice would be to get to space early and stay there and enjoy the show!
4. Prater Park:
A large public park, home to one of the oldest theme parks in Europe. The theme park is free to enter and quite interesting to wander through.
The rides are individually priced, most looked to be between €2 and €10. The old Ferris-wheel is the main attraction we didn’t go on it as it was €10 each and it didn’t look like you’d get an amazing view, I could be wrong though!
5. Palace of Justice:
This is supposedly a well-kept secret in Vienna. This may be because you have to go through some high tech, scary-looking security to enter the building. It is worth it! For a free view over the city head to the Palace of Justice. Once through the security, the inside is just stunning,
Take the lift up to the rooftop café offers views over the whole city. Plus its FREE entry!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my highlights and the best things to do in Vienna, happy travelling!
